Perry started down the right path

It may be a little bit after the fact but I wanted to see if there was going to be any additional points to the storied headlines from the Republican debate the other night other than the much maligned Rick Perry's forgetfulness. The real story was not his forgetting the third target of his smaller government plan but that no one jumped on the band wagon.

Here was a real opportunity to make real cost cutting efforts a meaningful part of the debate and start identifying Federal programs and agencies that should no longer exist (as if some of them ever should have in the first place). What would have been much more exciting for this political race and for America is if a new competition would have started that night to see who would produce the most aggressive proposal for real government reduction. The starting bid of three programs was not even bid up to four.

There are far more possibilities than those offered. The National Endowment for the Arts, Housing and Urban Development, Education, Energy, Environmental and that is just to name a very few of the big well known areas. There are dozens more of the lesser known that could come off the top that very few have even heard of.

In addition to the outright elimination of some programs, severe cuts to others would help force them to focus on core functions and objectives that serve the purpose for which they were established. As budgets got bigger, the scope of many agencies grew far beyond their original designs as they became an obstacle and stumbling block to the very public they were designed to serve.

Of course this was promoted heavily by those in Congress that felt they had to pass a new law for every whiny complaint that past through their door. Thanks also to every whiner that brought it too them thinking that government is the solution to all our problems. And a special mention to those that execute said laws and regulations and using their own interpretations to enhance what they feel those requirements were really meant to be.

And because every one of those government programs and agencies support a "someone" somehow, there will always be opposition to turning them off. Any of them.

This is a vicious cycle we have put ourselves in and when only one in ten candidates is even willing to 'talk the talk' you know the odds of real fiscal reform (where someone will 'walk the walk') are not in the cards this go around. Don't be fooled by the sound bites and photo ops but instead look for those that will let actions speak louder than words. I'm still looking, are you?

This is Ed Nef with a view from the Farr West.